the amnesiac

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

I smile at Jack, then squint my eyes when I hear some kind of wailing. Jack let's go of my waist and turns around. "Shit," he says under his breath. I turn around and realize what was making the noise.

The police officer pulls up behind us and Jack sighs, rolling down the window.

The officer gets out of his car and walks towards us. "Is there a problem?" he asks Jack.

"No, officer. We were just about to get back on the road." The officer nods and takes a look inside the car.

After a couple of minutes of searching the back seat with just his eyes, the officer asks us to get out of the car. We open the doors on each side of the car and step out. The officer tells us to stand by the front of the car. Jack offers me an annoyed roll of his eyes and I almost laugh. The officer steps into the car and starts to search the back seats. He searches the compartments by the passenger seat of the car. The whole search ends up taking eight minutes until the officer decides he should check the trunk.

I sigh and Jack takes my hand in his, making me smile.

"Well, I don't see anything that shouldn't be here," the officer shouts from the trunk, and Jack lets go of my hand- much to my disappointment- and turns towards the officer. He closes the trunk with a slam and walks back towards us. "Well, why don't you tell me why you were pulled off the road, then?"

Jack makes up a story before I could even open my mouth to respond. "Well, we were driving to her mother's house," he motions towards me and I smile kindly at the officer, hoping that he gets back in his own lane- literally, "and she received a phone call. It was her mother calling, so she asked if I could pull off the road so she could answer it. She had just hung up when you came by."

The officer seems to believe the story, and doesn't ask for any ore information. "Well, I guess you should get back to driving to your mother's house," he smiles at me, then turns back to Jack. The officer extends his hand, and Jack shakes it firmly. "Thank you, officer." The officer smiles again and turns to walk back towards his car. Jack and O do the same, and I buckle my seatbelt so the cop doesn't give us a ticket for that. Jack drives a few miles below the speed limit until the patrol car is out of sight, then he bursts out laughing. "So we pull off the road for a few minutes and the first thing he thinks is that we're doing drugs?" He shakes his head, making me laugh.

I forget that my ex-boyfriend forced himself on me the night before. I forget that my mother and Cassie' father are engaged. I forget that only a few weeks before today, I was a bitchy cheerleader. The only thing I care about right now is the way Jack's eyes crinkle when he smiles, and right now, the dimples on his cheeks are deeper than the Pacific Ocean, and his eyes are shining brighter than the sun.

I lean over and plant a kiss on his cheek. "Where are we going?" I ask him.

"You'll figure it out soon," he tells me.

Usually, I would be annoyed that someone couldn't answer a simple question like that, but right now, I don't give a shit.

I grab Jack's hand and hold it the whole drive.

---

"What are we doing here?" I ask Jack, but I can't hold my smile back.

We're at Gerald Tanner's Park, our favorite hangout spot. This is the place where Jack and I would go when we needed to take a break from everything else in the world. It's where I would go when I got tired of being a bitchy cheerleader and spend time with my closest friend- Jack was the only person that I felt comfortable being myself around. Not even Kate allowed me to feel that way. It was the place where my favorite memories were made. It was the place where Jack and I first met.

And it as also the place where I hit my head.

"Come on," Jack takes my hand and we run up the hill towards the tree that we laid under every Sunday, every Wednesday, and every other evening when we felt that we needed to relax. We reach the top of the hill, out of breath, and sit down by the bark of the tree. Jack takes my hand and smiles. I look up at the tree nervously and frown.

Jack notices and takes my chin in his hand, making me look at him. "Remember when your dad passed away and you tried to run from it? Nobody else could find you, but I knew you were up here." I smile shyly at the memory.

He squeezes my hand. "And you remember what I told you, right?" I nod. "You told me that there will come a day when we can run away together, with no one to stop us." He nods. "So let's run away," he says. "We can always come back. But just for the night, let's run away together."

I smile at him, crying with happiness and ignoring how sappy he sounds, and I bring my lips to his. "Let's run away," I agree as I pull his face closer to mine.

We held each other close until we fell asleep in our favorite place, and we hid from the world until the sun rose again the next day.